While most of us wonder why planes aren't built of the crash-proof "black box" flight recorder material, one modder has requisitioned a black box of his own to use as a PC case. While the package itself is quite large (and disappointingly red), the interior is so cramped that only a Mini-ITX motherboard could fit inside, running Slackware Linux on a 800MHz Via C3. But have you ever seen the inside of a black box before?

That padding? It's not fluffy down. From the modder:

To clear out the storage half, I used a large auger bit and a drill. I also occasionally soaked the asbestos to help keep it from finding its way into my lungs. I started to question whether this mod was worth lung cancer, then decided it was.

(Ed note: we'd make a joke about death here, but were the modder to actually die of lung cancer, we'd feel like douches for the rest of our lives. So pardon our restraint.) [brettsprojects via technabob]

Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.